RWBY: Wrath of the Viper
by shadesofthetwilight
Summary: Zura Zeal lost everything when Beacon fell. Her Brother, her team, and the respect of her father. Angry at the White Fang for taking everything away from her, Zura is now on the war path with every intention of taking down every corrupt group that exists on Remnant even if she has to die trying. There is nothing more terrifying than a woman with nothing left to lose.


**THE FALL OF BEACON: Zura**

Screams sounded through the night skies. The carnage and destruction illuminated by the flickering flames that spread throughout Beacon. The once lively city was no more. Fallen prey to an elaborate ruse that would remain undiscovered for quite some time. The White Fang had herded the Grimm in, assisted by the sadness and anger brought on during the Vital Festival. It was all supposed to be a time of unity. It was supposed to be a time of friendly competition and making friends. How had it all gone so wrong? That was a question a lone girl kept asking as she wept over her fallen team mates of AZUR.

Amidst the sea of flames, the girl screamed in anguish. Her long, smooth, pale blue hair shimmered in the flames, her golden eyes reflecting the fires as she stared down at the body of her twin brother. Her gaze drifted between him and the other two. A tan boy with short scarlet hair dressed in red military styled clothing, and another girl with smokey gray hair dressed in what looked to be a cross between a military styled outfit and a school girl's uniform. Her brother looked the worse for wear. His hair and eyes the same as her, with clothing that once reflected the attire of a martial artist. "Oh Az," the girl sobbed. "Oh Az... Oh Rosé... Oh Umbra... I'm so sorry. I'm so so sorry."

Moments before the team had been cornered by Grimm. Az had called her for help, and while she had tried to get there as fast as she could, she simply had not been fast enough. She arrived just in time to see her brother get mauled to death by an Elder Ursa. It had all been a haze from there. The last thing she remembered was feeling an intense anger. After that she was staring down at her fallen team in shock. She had not moved since. It was as though all emotion and desire had been sucked from her.

"Hey! What are you doing? You need to get to safety." An accented voice snapped her out of her haze. Turning towards the source, she saw a girl about her age. Long brown hair with matching eyes with long, brown rabbit ears sticking out from the top of her head. It was Velvet. At first it seemed that the Faunus had not noticed why her companion was just standing there. Upon closer inspection, she finally noticed the bodies that comprised of the bulk of team AZUR. Without hesitation, she removed her scroll from her pocket. "P-professer Goodwitch. This is Velvet Scarlatina of team CFVY. W-we have some fallen students over here. What should I do?" Zura could tell that Velvet was really worried now.

" _I'm afraid you will have to leave them. We will make sure they are taken care of as soon as the situation is resolved."_

Zura couldn't believe what she heard. Leave them? Leave her brother to rot in the streets of Vale? Her eyes widened in shock from the words, narrowing soon after from the rage that soon followed. "Just leave my brother? Just leave my friends? Do you even have a heart Professor!?" she shrieked. Velvet tried to rest a hand on her shoulder to give her comfort but Zura just smacked it away. "How dare you!" She was trying to wrestle the scroll from Velvet's hands now.

Someone else snuck up on Zura, and wrapped their arms around her to pull her away from the startled Velvet in a tight bear hug. "You're angry. I get it, but don't you think you are directing that anger towards the wrong people? We're here to help you so do us all a favor and chill." It was Coco. Despite being of a similar height and frame, Zura couldn't even hope to escape from her fellow student's grasp.

Despite her squirming, her mind was in full gear now. Golden eyes taking in the destruction around her as well as the look of fear and concern on Velvet's face. Even if she didn't want to, she had to admit that Coco and Professor Goodwitch were both right. There wasn't time to drag bodies around. Not with both White Fang and Grimm on the prowl. The trio was lucky enough to not have garnered any unwanted attention so far. To show her compliance, she let her body go limp, her head moving up and down with a nod of agreement. She could feel Coco twitch in hesitation, but soon the bear hug relaxed as Coco slowly released her, careful to watch Zura's movements so she didn't do anything crazy again.

Zura honored her compliance. As much as she didn't want to agree with any of them, she knew she had to if she wanted to avenge her fallen team mates. Kneeling down, the Huntress in training, plucked a segmented staff off from the ground, eyes examining every nook and cranny of the weapon to make sure it was in working order. It was her brother's weapon Rotus Flexi. A corny name for a weapon, that fit it well all the same. Within the ends of the staff was a series of dust chambers that allowed the weapon to take on a series of different elemental blade shapes on either end. It was an excellent weapon that matched her brother's Afterimage Semblance well. Thankfully it suited hers as well since her twin weapons, the Twin Vipers, were spent and damaged at her hips. At this point she was ever more grateful that their father saw to it that the twins had practiced with each others weapons as much as they practiced with their own. It built a brilliant synergy between the two, and it allowed them to swap weapons on a whim to confuse enemies, and better coordinate their own attacks.

Never in her life did she think she would have taken her brother's Rotus Flexi under these kinds of circumstances. "Let's go," she whispered to Coco and Velvet. Much to her surprise, she felt the hands of both girls rest on her shoulders with a gentle rub. Velvet she had expected it from, but not Coco. The cool girl had never exactly been one to show emotion through that stoic demeanor of hers. Yet here she was with a somber expression that betrayed the sympathy she felt towards Zura. It was oddly reassuring. The three girls took a deep breath and marched forward towards the evacuation site.

The journey itself was uneventful. Most surprising was the gravity of the situation. The severity of the damage to Vale as they marched down the flame lit streets. The three were relatively silent through the trip. Surprisingly their encounters with the Grimm were scarce. Coco had been the one on offense while Velvet and Zura, much to Zura's dismay, were defense. This meant that Zura got very little action as Coco tore through the Grimm with her Gatling Gun with inhuman ease. Even now Zura had a hard time figuring out the designer dressed girl's Semblance. Was she really that strong? Or did her Semblance have something to do with it?

The lack of action gave Zura very little distraction from her trouble. Far too often did Coco have to yell at her to stay focused as Velvet covered her. To say it was embarrassing would have been an understatement. Zura was infuriated with herself as much as she was the situation. While Velvet did her best to try and comfort Zura, Coco had gone back to being her usual stoic self as she kept her eyes out for any incoming Grimm. At this point Zura would have given anything to tear the beasts to pieces. While the bunny eared Faunus noticed, and had even proposed switching roles, Coco seemed to be firmly against the idea. Zura was beginning to think that the earlier display of sympathy had just been a ruse to torment her once the heat started coming along. The thought was starting to bring her to her boiling point.

Velvet kept shooting glances at Zura. The pale blue haired warrior had been able to keep it together so far, but she was beginning to worry about her. Coco may have been trying to help by keeping her from fighting, but Velvet knew that her stoic leader was achieving the opposite of what she desired. "Coco...I really don't think this is a good idea," she whispered to her leader. "Let Zura fight. Its clear that she wants to."

"No," Coco whispered back. There was a hint of a scowl underneath her glasses. "I can't risk her losing it again. Right now we are surrounded by everything she hates. The Grimm that killed her team. The people that lured them in here. What do you think is going to happen the moment she swings that weapon of her brother's?"

Velvet could see Coco's point, but there had to be something they could do to ease Zura's mind. Her concern for Zura grew the longer they went. At the very least she had been able to take pictures of Zura's Twin Vipers, her brother's Rotus Flexi, and Coco's Gatling Gun just in case she had to use a more aggressive approach with her defensive tactics. Thankfully she didn't have to. It gave her time to ask Zura random questions, or at least try to since her questions went unanswered. It looked as though Zura was looking for something. What it was, she did not know. The only thing she was certain of. The focus Zura had concerned her. What was she...

Coco held a hand out, signaling the two to stop. Just ahead a group of White Fang members were lurking about with guns in hand. "Dammit," she whispered, turning towards the girls behind her with haste. She already knew she needed to stop Zura, but it was too late. She wasn't even half way through with her turn when the azure haired girl sprinted forward with venomous rage. "Zura stor p!"

"You bastards!" Zura shrieked as she sprinted forward with Rotus Flexi at the ready. Fingers slid along a The top half's dials, the dust barrels rotating until a light blue case slipped into place. From there, Zura just had to concentrate on activating the dust and shaping it to her desire. Years of practice made it quite easy. A cold mist radiated from the end of the weapon, shaping itself into the blade of a scythe. By this point the White Fang members took notice of their assailant, each grinning as they raised their weapons and opened fire on Zura. Despite her fit of rage, Zura had her attack planned out. As far as everyone else was concerned, she appeared to flash about in a zig zagging pattern with a trail of golden light in her wake. It was none other than Zura's Semblance at work. Similar in nature to Ruby's Speed Semblance, Zura's Flash was marked as being twice as fast at the expense of maneuverability and range. Not that it mattered much to Zura. All she had to do was Flash again to avoid the bullet fire.

The White Fang members seemed to be panicking now, the members firing more aggressively at Zura as she drew closer, their fear becoming ever more evident with each flash. Before the White Fang members even knew it, Zura stood in the center of the bunch, and with a twirl of her body and a swipe of the blade, the White Fang members found themselves completely frozen in ice as the scythe blade vanished with the cast of Dust. Just as quickly as she had frozen the members, red hot scythe blades appeared on each end, and despite Coco and Velvet's cries, she slashed at the frozen Faunus , creating quite the explosion of flames and ice. Bits and pieces of the members remained as the two girls stared in horror at Zura.

"What the hell was that?" Coco demanded as she stormed towards Zura. It was quite clear that the leader of Team CFVY was not happy with Zura. ' _How the hell could she do that?'_ she asked herself. "You just killed them in cold blood!"

"It was self defense!" Zura shot back.

"Don't even! Team RWBY took on a small army of White Fang and didn't kill a single one of them, and you want to try and tell me that a third year like you couldn't avoid killing a small squad? Let's go Zura. We'll have to see what Professor Goodwitch wants to do with you." Coco was definitely pissed, but so was Zura. Velvet didn't know what to say. She was both afraid and concerned for Zura. How little would it take to get Zura to point that weapon at them? It was a question both members of Team CFVY were asking themselves at the moment.

"I'm finished," Zura whispered in a rather somber tone. Her gaze rose to the sky as she lowered her stance. What use was there in becoming a Huntress without her brother? Without her friends? The thought of running away crossed her mind. A horde of incoming Griffons made up her mind for her. Stay and fight. "You two get going. My career as a Huntress is over. The least I can do is make sure those with their futures ahead of them can move on."

Just as she had with the White Fang members, Zura charged forward before Coco and Velvet had a chance to say anything. With the Griffons quickly descending, they didn't exactly have much choice in the matter. Not even they could take on that many Griffons at once. Coco knew that Zura was going to die, and they wouldn't be that far behind if they didn't start running. "Damn," Coco whispered. "Velvet. Let's go."

As her lithe frame twisted in the air, Zura could see Velvet and Coco running away. Knowing that her two friends would make it out safely brought some peace to her mind. With her brother and Team AZUR gone, There was little point in moving forward. Her father would be disappointed. She never liked it when her father was disappointed. Neither did Az. Despite being distracted with her thoughts and pain, she was doing quite well against the Griffons. Her body twisting and turning. The Dust blades changing from scythe blades, tridents, and spears. From one end she used the fire dust to propel herself higher, using the explosions to enhance her strikes. At one point Velvet turned to check on her. She couldn't help but be impressed as she watched the bodies of the Griffons drop three to five at a time. Despite Zura's efforts, Velvet knew that it was only a matter of time.

The two members had made it to safety. So many people were injured. Yang had lost her arm. Some others had been wounded while others simply looked exhausted and shell shocked. Medics were scrambling around to tend to the injured while General Ironwood and Professor Goodwitch saw to the rest. The atmosphere was quite grim. Yang had an air of defeat about her, while Ruby and Weiss looked around for Blake. All of Team CFVY were reunited. The team of four grateful for each other's safety. Once things calmed down enough, Coco gave her report to Professor Goodwitch. To say she was happy with Coco's report would have been an overstatement. In the end the Professor was glad that at least the two had made it out alive. It was a sad day for everyone. Especially so for the surviving members of Team JNPR. Members from teams all around offered their condolences to Jean, Ren, and Nora. As team CFVY offered their respects, Coco and Velvet couldn't help but think of team AZUR's fate.

"Its okay," Jean muttered. While his tone was somber, it was apparent that he still had room to understand and grieve with Coco and Velvet. "Who knows. Maybe she made it out. I heard that Professor Goodwitch was going to send out another search team just in case there were other survivors. Let's just hope that there is still some room for miracles. That Zura managed to make it out okay. I heard your team was going to transfer over to Shade so who knows. You might get a chance to see her there."

Coco couldn't help but smile. "You know Jean. You're a good guy. I can see why Pyrrha thought so highly of you. Good hustle!" Giving him a firm slap on the back, Coco found her amusement towards her fellow team leader grow as he stumbled forward. It was clear why Ozpin had made him the team leader of JNPR. "By the way... Where is Professor Ozpin?"

Author's Notes:

I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of Eye of the Viper. Pretty intense and dark for an opening chapter, but I promise that not everything in this story is going to be all doom and gloom. Sunshine and rainbows will be coming in the next chapter. A lovely, out of place flashback telling everyone how Team AZUR came to be. Yeah that's right. I'm going there, but I promise that the flashback chapters won't be a frequent thing. If this gets enough views, I might do a story revolving around Team AZUR's time in beacon Academy. Ta ta everyone! See you at the end of chapter 2!


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